Four plead not guilty in mortgage fraud cases

Four men who were indicted this week in connection with Operation Stolen Dreams, a nationwide initiative aimed at combatting mortgage fraud, appeared before a federal judge in Las Vegas on Friday.

All four defendants, who were indicted in separate cases, were released after pleading not guilty. They were among the 72 people charged this week in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas as part of the nationwide crackdown.

The crackdown targeted complex schemes involving straw buyers, double escrows and diversions from mortgage loans for personal use, according to federal authorities who describe Las Vegas as ground zero for mortgage fraud.

Bradley Tubin, 55, Phet Loi Naovarath, 34, Oudum Somee, 43, and real estate agent Curtis Briley Jr., 74, each answered questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Johnston during the routine hearing.

Tubin has retained Las Vegas attorney Mace Yampolsky, a childhood classmate from Massachusetts, to represent him.

“I grew up with him,” Yampolsky said after the hearing. “He’s been a very successful businessman” and has lived in Las Vegas for several years.

Tubin was indicted Wednesday on one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and surrendered Friday morning. Like the other three fraud defendants in Johnston’s courtroom that afternoon, he was released on his own recognizance.

FBI agents arrested Naovarath, Somee and Briley on Thursday night.

According to the indictment against Tubin, he began conspiring with an unidentified person in 2006 or 2007 to commit bank fraud.

The indictment claims Tubin and his co-conspirator recruited someone to serve as a straw buyer for houses, and Tubin then “sold houses to the straw buyer for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the defendant had paid for the houses a few months earlier.”

A straw buyer is a person who pretends to be a legitimate buyer for property in order to conceal the identity of the actual buyer.

According to the indictment, Tubin caused false statements to be made in the straw buyer’s loan applications and related documents. Those false statements pertained to the straw buyer’s income, assets, places of employment and intent to occupy the property.

“It was further part of the conspiracy that the defendant falsely and fraudulently represented to the lender that the straw buyer worked since October 2004 for Tubin International, a company owned by the defendant,” the indictment alleges.

The indictment specifically lists a property at 7501 Royal Crystal St. in Las Vegas and claims about $200,000 was diverted in the 2007 transaction. The lender is identified as Countrywide Home Loans.

“There is no allegation that he did anything to falsify the appraisal for the property,” Yampolsky said.

The lawyer said Tubin has never been convicted of a crime.

Tubin’s trial is scheduled to begin Aug. 9, but Yampolsky said that date likely will be pushed back.

Johnston appointed Yampolsky to represent Naovarath, who said he could not afford to hire an attorney. Naovarath was indicted Tuesday on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Although Naovarath’s indictment was unsealed in court Friday afternoon, it was not immediately made public.

Briley was indicted Wednesday with escrow officer Brenda Jackson on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, one count of wire fraud and two counts of bank fraud. Jackson also is charged in the indictment with additional conspiracy and fraud charges.

According to the document, Briley and Jackson began conspiring in 2006 or 2007 and engaged in schemes that involved straw buyers and double escrows.

The indictment defines a fraudulent double escrow as “a real estate transaction involving two contracts at two different prices, with two different buyers, on the same property, closing escrow on the same day, intentionally not disclosed to the lender.” Perpetrators of fraud use double escrows to divert money from mortgage loans for their personal use.

According to the indictment, Briley and Jackson caused co-conspirator real estate appraisers to prepare appraisal reports that falsely overstated the value of properties and caused those appraisals to be submitted to lenders.

The indictment specifically accuses the two defendants of diverting about $470,000 from the sales of three Las Vegas properties in 2006.

Briley, who continues to work in the real estate industry, has retained attorney David Phillips to represent him. Johnston said Briley’s employer must be notified of the pending criminal case.

The federal public defender’s office was appointed to represent Somee, a native of Laos. Somee was indicted Tuesday on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

Although the indictment was unsealed in court Friday afternoon, it was not immediately made public.

Representatives of the Southern Nevada Mortgage Fraud Task Force gathered Thursday in Las Vegas to announce the regional results of Operation Stolen Dreams, the largest collective enforcement effort aimed at confronting mortgage fraud.

Authorities said 123 defendants were charged, convicted or sentenced in Las Vegas during the operation, which began March 1. Those defendants are accused of engaging in hundreds of fraudulent transactions with straw buyers and causing a gross total loss of more than $246 million.

The U.S. attorney’s office has not released a complete list of the defendants.

Michael Capodici, Jeffrey Palladino, Michael Blair and real estate agent Linda Maria Kot were charged together in one of the indictments that was returned Wednesday.

They are accused of devising a mortgage fraud scheme from about August 2005 to May 2006. Authorities claim the defendants were involved in 12 fraudulent real estate transactions involving nine homes sold in Las Vegas.

“The homes were either flipped — sold twice within a short period of time — or were the subject of a foreclosure,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office in Las Vegas.

The majority of the homes sold for more than $600,000 and the approximate value of the mortgages for the 12 transactions was $8 million, according to the statement.

Kot also was charged in another indictment that was returned Wednesday. Other defendants in that mortgage fraud case are Hugo Patricio Coutelin, Michael Perry and Jeff Thomas.

Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@reviewjournal.com or 702-384-8710.